Newt: That Pelosi ad was a bad idea, huh?

posted at 11:00 am on November 9, 2011 by Ed Morrissey

Give Newt Gingrich a few points of credit. First, he agreed to appear on Fox’s Center Seat, something not every Republican candidate will do (ahem, Mr. Inevitable). Second, Gingrich has learned that his tete a tete with Nancy Pelosi remains the single biggest obstacle to conservative support in this race — and third, he has a better and more honest approach to it than he did three months ago:

In 2008 former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared in a TV ad created by Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to urge action on anthropogenic climate change. Many conservatives were disappointed.

However, on Tuesday’s “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel, Gingrich — now a candidate for the Republican nomination for president — admitted it was a mistake for him to appear in the ad during the show’s “Center Seat” segment.

“First of all, that is probably the dumbest single thing I’ve done in years,” Gingrich said. “It is inexplicable that somebody used to say, ‘You know, there aren’t enough hay wagons to stand on to get people to understand that.’ You just need to relax and go, that was dumb.”

Panelist Charles Krauthammer asked Gingrich if he was being held hostage when the ad was filmed. Gingrich responded that he just made a mistake.

“No, that was dumb,” Gingrich said. “I was trying to do something I failed to do. I do think it’s important for conservative to be in the middle of the debate over the environment.”

Go back to the end of July, when Gingrich tried to blame this on conservatives “misconstru[ing]” his ad, to see how how much Newt has changed his approach on this issue. He now takes full responsibility for a dumb decision, perhaps taking a page from Tim Pawlenty in self-deprecation. Gingrich follows this with a good defense of his record in blocking action on the AGW agenda, both personally and through his American Solutions grassroots organization. That was also the organization that provided the “Drill Here Drill Now” action group in 2008 and beyond.

Could this mea culpa be good enough for conservatives to give Gingrich another look? At least it’s a step in the right direction.

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It was very dumb. Then Newt went on to exacerbate the damage when he defended his chat with Nancy claiming that he was only saying that we should talk about global warming, but simply listening to the ad you heard straight from Newt’s lips that he was demanding “action.”

Newt’s alliance with Al Gore and Nancy, his support of Dede Scozzafava and another more recent bit of stupidity that I can’t recall at the moment along with his messy personal life prevent me from voting for Newt.

When Newt is good, he’s very good, but when he gets stupid, the Democrats will pile on and pass it as law and we’ll be stuck with it.

Does anyone else remember Gingrich’s “debate” with John Kerry over AGW several years ago? He basically agreed with the “science” and started from the premise that AGW was real and needed to be dealt with (which really surprised Kerry), but that we needed smart Conservative-style solutions to tackle the problem.

Given the fact that with Cain imploding, and the amount of past quotes I have seen from Romney that show how liberal he was in the past and therefore I’m not sure I trust him in the future, Newt may be our only hope, so I’m starting to reconsider whether I can forgive him for his AGW (and other) indiscretions enough to support him. At least we would get a good debater that should know how to not implode and has been, overall, reliably and sufficiently conservative.

The recent bit of stupidity you can’t remember was probably when Newt stabbed the House Republicans in the back on national TV. Something about “this is not the time to undertake social engineering projects.” It’s just another example of Newt betraying his old friends to make new friends.

Newt Gingrich: I Screwed Around On My Wives Because I Love This Country So Much

Knucklehead on November 9, 2011 at 11:07 AM

I like the fact that he said that he wasn’t caught in any ethical quandary but that what he did was in fact WRONG. He didn’t say that it was a mistake or that he was sorry if he offended anyone. He said that what he did was wrong.

I don’t mind people flip flopping on this issue. In fact, I welcome all politicians to learn the truth about climate change so that they can see how it’s build on junk science…excuse me….post-modern science.

Just like gropers look good when placed in the middle of a circle of rapists? What kind of logic is this?

I don’t like cheats and sleazebags. If you can’t be faithful to your wife, or have the decency to get a divorce BEFORE taking up with another woman, how are you going to handle the pressure of expediency and convenience in the WH?

Could this mea culpa be good enough for conservatives to give Gingrich another look?

I might have if he had stopped at “it was stupid” but then he spent the next five minutes talking about how ALL the real scientists agree it exists and we need to have a “market” solution to it. BS. He knows it’s hurt him but he’s too arrogant to realize he was wrong on the substance, not just the tactics. Sorry Newt but there’s not enough room in this country for your head and the rest of us. Anyone have a continent sized pin?